June 27, 2013

In a piece on Colorlines, Professor Victor Goode provides a non-legalese breakdown of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in the affirmative action case, Fisher v. University of Texas. The Supreme Court decided not to issue a ruling and instead sent the case back to the lower courts to try again. “As a practical matter, this means that the University of Texas affirmative action plan remains in place, at least for now,” writes Goode.

On the Constitutional Law Prof Blog, Distinguished Professor Ruthann Robson analyzes yesterday’s Supreme Courts rulings on same-sex marriage in United States v. Windsor, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) case, and Hollingsworth v. Perry, the Proposition 8 case. The Supreme Court ruled that section 3 of DOMA was unconstitutional, violating the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, and held that traditional marriage activists who put Prop 8 on California ballots in 2008 did not have the constitutional authority to defend the law in federal court after the state refused to appeal its loss at trial.

Professor Goode has practiced in the areas of affirmative action, housing, and other civil rights issues. Before joining the CUNY School of Law faculty, he served as executive director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, founded the Affirmative Action Coordinating Center, and worked as part of the legal team that filed amicus briefs in three landmark affirmative action cases (Bakke, Weber, and Fullilove).